I was in Vietnam, you knowKerry,
... the Senate's current
foreign policy expert, filling the empty wingtips of Joe Biden...
the US senator for Massachusetts, has called comments by Sudan's president on the country's upcoming referendum on southern succession "extremely encouraging" during a visit to Khartoum, the Sudanese capital.
Omar al-Bashir
Head of the National Congress Party. He came to power in 1989 when he, as a brigadier in the Sudanese army, led a group of officers in a bloodless military coup that ousted the government of Prime Minister Sadiq al-Mahdi and eventually appointed himself president. Omar's peculiar talent lies in starting conflict. He has fallen out with his Islamic mentor, Hasan al-Turabi, tried to impose shariah on the Christian and animist south, resulting in its imminent secessesion, and attempted to
ArabizeDarfur by unleashing the barbaric Janjaweed on it. Sudan's potential prosperity has been pissed away in warfare that has left as many as 400,000 people dead and 2.5 million displaced. Omar has been indicted for genocide by the International Criminal Court but nothing is expected to come of it.
pledged last week to help build a stable and "brotherly" southern state if it votes for independence on January 9.
The president echoed those comments on Tuesday when he visited the southern capital of Juba, saying he would celebrate the results of the referendum even if the south chooses to secede.
Kerry, who is chairman of the Senate foreign relations committee, is one of a number of international envoys who are in the country ahead of the referendum which could see Sudan's south establish itself as an independent nation.
"The speech by President Bashir here [in Khartoum, on December 31], as well as his comments in Juba yesterday are extremely encouraging," Kerry told news hounds following a meeting with Ghazi Salaheddine, an influential presidential adviser, on Wednesday.
"They're very positive, very constructive, and I think it sets a good stage for the events that begin in the next days."